midwife

American  

[mid-wahyf] / ˈmɪdˌwaɪf /

noun

• midwives
  plural

1. a person trained to assist women in childbirth.

2. a person or thing that produces or aids in producing something new or different.

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verb (used with object)

midwifed, midwived, midwifing, midwiving

1. to assist in the birth of (a baby).

2. to produce or aid in producing (something new).

   to midwife a new generation of computers.

midwife British  

/ ˈmɪdˌwaɪf /

noun

1. a person qualified to deliver babies and to care for women before, during, and after childbirth

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• midwives
  plural

Etymology

Origin of midwife

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English midwif, from mid “with, accompanying” ( Old English; see also meta-) + wif “woman” ( Old English wīf; see wife)

Explanation

A midwife is someone whose job involves helping women give birth to babies. Some pregnant women get their prenatal care from a midwife, as well as delivering their babies with a midwife's help. There are different categories of midwives — lay midwives attend home births, and nurse midwives also assist birthing women at hospitals and birth centers. In either case, a midwife is trained to understand the process of birth and techniques to make it easier and safe for mothers and newborn babies. Midwife literally means "woman who is with," or "woman assisting," from the Middle English mid, "with," and wif, "woman."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

midwife midwives midwifed midwifing midwived

The nearest health centre was a long journey away, so Quiñonez's mother, a midwife, tried to ease the baby's pain with medicinal plants.

From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026

To better understand why some populations recover while others continue to collapse, researchers studied common midwife toads living around four lakes in the Pyrenees of France and Spain that had all experienced severe Bd outbreaks.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 15, 2026

Led by senior midwife Donna Ockenden, the inquiry found there were "potentially avoidable" outcomes for mothers and babies in 520 cases and "deeply embedded systemic failures" at maternity units in Nottingham.

From BBC ● Jul. 5, 2026

Burrows’ talent was to midwife a real relationship between the viewer and the viewed, “You want to go where everybody knows your name,” runs the “Cheers” theme, and where you know everyone’s name.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 20, 2026

Jimmie and I went to his parents’ house, where his mother, several of his sisters, and the midwife tended to me.

From "Reaching for the Moon" by Katherine Johnson

We're talking the likes of nurses, midwives, paramedics, teachers, and engineers.

From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026

The report also raised concerns about how patients were allocated to midwives.

From BBC ● Jun. 16, 2026

Two delegates from the Bangladesh Midwifery Society, who convinced their government to hire 5,000 extra midwives, were also rejected.

From Barron's ● Jun. 12, 2026

Many of the delegates are set to march on Saturday in Lisbon for the "One Million More" campaign, drawing attention to a global shortage of midwives.

From Barron's ● Jun. 12, 2026

She checked in on the pregnant women and gave advice to the midwives and healers and apothecaries.

From "The Girl Who Drank the Moon" by Kelly Barnhill

The actually existing Mets were also midwifed by Gotham honchos.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 27, 2026

He midwifed the country’s first farm labor bill, and was decades ahead of his time on renewable energy and climate change.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2023

"It's not going to stop with Black studies, it will continue to all the other subjects and knowledges that are midwifed and have been midwifed by Black studies."

From Salon ● Mar. 31, 2023

Elizabeth’s rule, midwifed by Walsingham, certainly gave birth to much of the spycraft, deception and intrigue that grew to full and horrible flower in the modern postwar period.

From New York Times ● Feb. 11, 2020

Mother had midwifed four of his eight children.

From "Educated" by Tara Westover

“There is lots to be proud of, including midwifing ten new plays by women playwrights from Los Angeles, into the American theatre through our Writers Workshop,” he wrote.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 2, 2022

He's no hero – that makes Brodie-Sangster so watchable – but he is a Machiavellian force who ends up midwifing several rock luminaries to stardom whether directly or, in Hynde's case, as an oppositional springboard.

From Salon ● Jun. 1, 2022

And James will ironically be in the position of midwifing the next phase of America’s gun movement.

From Slate ● Sep. 3, 2020

However, Campbell is also sharply scrutinized for his role in midwifing and unleashing Dianetics.

From Nature ● Oct. 9, 2018

In a place with deep and binding tethers to the past, Katherine Johnson, a black woman, was midwifing the future.

From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly

Langhorne was midwived in a Bethesda hospital, the middle of three sons to a father who ran a concrete company.

From Washington Post ● Oct. 5, 2015

I pretend neither to the spirit of prophecy, nor to any uncommon skill in predicting a crisis; much less to tell when it begins to be nascent, or is fairly midwived into the world.

From James Otis, the pre-revolutionist by John Clark Ridpath

Related Words

• obstetrician